It is now May and all that Easter bunny business is done and packed up for next year. The Easter baskets are wrapped and stored, the chocolate is gone and the Easter candy displays are replaced with barbeque displays encouraging us to move beyond Easter and look forward to Memorial Day picnics and summer barbeques. However, Easter is not done … not yet … not ever!
We say we are Easter people, people who live in resurrection not death. AND liturgically, the Easter season lasts for a full 50 days until the day of Pentecost – May 24th! This is our season to rejoice and be glad. This is the season we don’t include the general confession, because the focus is on the joy of knowing that life is made new through the resurrection of Jesus.
The ability to be self-aware and reflect on our lives is one of the greatest gifts God gave to human beings. Yet, we take such little time to do it. In the learning loop of experiential learning for children, all three learning steps are equally important: education, experience, and reflection. Experiential learning brings education and experience together in such a way that we are able to integrate the experience into our lives by reflecting and finding meaning to our every day lives. Sometimes the experience is so powerful, we need the space to ask ourselves, “What just happened?”
So before we are too far away from the great Easter experience I want to ask you:
What happened for you in the Holy Week and Easter experience? Did you learn anything new about yourself, Jesus, or the people around you? Is there anything you feel nudged to do differently because of that experience? Did the experience bring you any closer to knowing God in a more concrete or relevant way? By reflecting and making meaning in our experiences, the learning continues and generalizes to other areas of our lives.
I see resurrection in my garden. Even those plants that a novice gardener like myself might be tempted to pull out because I think they are done, have green shoots and sprouts coming up to begin a new cycle of life. These tiny new shoots give me hope for metaphoric death in my life and help me to see that truly anything is possible with God!
Faithfully,
Rev. Mary
